On Naming Things

Understanding of human behavioral changes during the later Middle to earlier Late Pleistocene, encoded in the rudimentary record of stone artifacts, is impeded by problems of communication among archaeologists. For example: continued use of broad-scale developmental stage terms, such as “Earlier” vs. “Middle Stone Age” impedes understanding because of the multiplicity of implied meanings; continued widespread application of the term “Acheulean” to almost any unit containing large, bifacially trimmed “tools” impedes the understanding of subtle design changes. Nomenclature devised for content units from Dakhleh and Kharga Oases, Western Desert, Egypt, is a modification of recommendations made in 1965, which were aimed at greater flexibility and precision in naming cultural stratigraphic units.